Persona: Wanderer Soul
by Sixth Ranger BetaHalo
Summary: When is a soul born? at birth? at the first time a sentient being chooses for itself? Then what makes us human? Emotions? Morals? And why is it so hard to conceive that a soul does not need flesh to exist?
1. Visions

"_Time is nothing but an illusion…_

_A pale, moving mirage of eternity…_

_The world you see is but a passing thought…_

_A fleeing shadow of the infinity beyond…_

_You cannot understand…_

_Like children in the sand, just recently arrived…_

_That there always is an order…_

_Impossibly Old, and Unconceivably Wise…"_

_-[Unknown]_

XXXXXX

The sounds of an old-school train filled my ears.

And blue filled my eyes.

Why did they hurt?

Where am I?

"Oh? Such an intriguing guest… my, what an uncertain future!"

Who said that?

"Welcome… to the Velvet Room… Young Guest." A man with an almost cartoonish face spoke, his voice just his dace, was weird. "My name… is Igor; I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This is Justine, a resident here, like myself." The man pointed towards a lady. Her long white hair cascaded towards her hips, yellow eyes behind reading glasses looked at me with a subdued curiosity.

"I am very pleased to meet you" her voice, soft and melodious, reminded me of… of who?

The man, Mr. Igor was it? He kept talking.

"This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter.

Only those bound by the contract may enter this place. It might be that such fate awaits you in the future.

Why don't you introduce yourself?"

Is he asking for my name…?

My name?

…What is my name…?

"It seems like you are yet to be ready for your fate, Young Guest, but worry not. While your future is too chaotic for the cards to be properly read, I can tell you this.

When the time comes, your shall take responsibility of your actions…

Until then, I bid you fare well…"

Wait! Please!

Just who am I…?

XXXXXX

A certain building, on an artificial island far enough from the coast of Japan…

"Damn that Kouetsu, him and the rest of Ikutsuki's lot!" the rant of one scientist was interrupted by the beep of his lab door opening.

"Had i known it would come to this…" the door opened and he immediately went to the back of the room, using his code to open one hidden door.

"I wonder if he will ever forgive me…" he eyed the most prominent thing on the room, a purple-glowing tube, containing the one thing he joined this mad project for.

Turning on one computer, he set various systems on a quite long countdown; stolen equipment from the facilities in Yakushima Island filled a dozen of cabinets next to the tube. Fruits of his work filled the other cabinets littered around the room, a system designed to the betterment of mankind, turned into weapons, which would now be turned against their creators.

The man regretted not having listened to Takeba, guy had been honest from the beginning, but he'd been completely enamored by the Kijiro's bastard promises to notice.

Now they were all dead.

They had put all the blame on Eiichiro, god bless his soul. The bastards had the gall to blame him for all the sick experiments they performed.

He'd managed to stay under the radar, thanking whatever god was out there his car had broken on the road the day the experiment was performed. That gave him enough time to find out what happened.

And what had come out as a result.

He was supposed to set up the containment fields for the storage of those 'things', after he'd accidentally built a weapon capable of harming on of 'them' by sheer accident.

They'd come the next week, as sweet talked him into joining.

And now he regretted it.

He knew his time was running out, it wouldn't take long for someone to look at the facility's personnel record and notice he hadn't been the night everything went to hell, or created a way to it.

The Computers surrounding him finished their tasks, and went to sleep mode, a timer showed simple white numbers that would mark the time of his comeback.

If the world still stood by then.

The lights began shutting down, and the link was stablished. The little wireless station connected to a backdoor he'd found on the Kijiro's Network, guaranteeing his payback would work when the time came.

Setting down the final touches, he'd began packing everything he had. But he'd left a box, a box that made him cry when he'd opened it to check its contents. There laid part of the reason he'd joined the madhouse in the first place.

Before shutting down the final console, he set up the camera, recording one last message for the time it began.

"_Son… I hope the by the time you hear this…"_

…

…

The message was saved and set into a timer that matched the one in the other computers, leaving the final box close to it. Grabbing a handgun he'd hidden below one of the consoles, he went through the exit. Giving the glowing tube a final look filled with sorrow, he left to face the monsters that spawned more for the sole purpose of ending the world…

And so, the last legacy of one Matthias Altman was buried and forgotten for more than tenyears…

XXXXX

_I am the wanderer soul…_

_With the steel of my hands, with a heart of glass…_

_I am created to hold infinite sorrow._

_Not once knowing life, not once holding one's heart._

_Have withhold the pain of countless souls, waiting for end's arrival _

_These hands shall never hold anything…_

_So I Pray! Give me…_

_**Sixth Ranger presents:**_

_**A SMT:Persona fanfic.**_

_**Persona: Wanderer Soul**_

_**Prologue: Visions**_


	2. John 11:44

I woke up to a world of pain.

That's the last I remember, pain.

And now I wake up with it again.

I wonder…

Nah…

I feel…

So sleepy….

It Hurts…

[000478:59:20](?)

_System Reinitializing…_

_Warning! Power Malfunction may have caused data corruption and order accomplishment delay, please refer to administrator for further instructions._

[0000356:57:14](?)

_Error margin estimated by ? thousand Hours, attempting to connect to administrator for further instructions…_

[000343:55:00]

_No instructions received, proceeding with final orders, Initializing: __**FRAGARACH**_

Along the island, machinery woke up for the first time in more than a decade, power plants, damaged as they were, still turned on to feed the large amounts of systems that populated the island. Those systems barely managed to restart the main power plant (a couple of gigantic engines and solar panels) before dying, having suffered through the tsunamis that had beaten against them, only the thick steel doors almost buried in the rock having stopped the massive amounts of water that would have destroyed everything in that tiny island.

And despite all that, it had survived, the machinery sealed inside the facilities were still operational, and with renewed power supply, they began working, using preset routines written by the late master of the island.

Equipment began being assembled by various robotic arms, that while primitive by today's standards, they still performed they job well, cases were opened and various still shiny-new pieces of steel were put together to make some of the most impressive pieces of hardware created.

And in the deepest parts of the facilities, a glowing tube, having rested vertically for the last decade, was picked up by a crane before being carried somewhere else.

And so, the purpose of the facilities would be fulfilled…

Soon.

…

_The Hushed casket unseals…_

_To unleash that which came before_

_The case cracks open…_

_So soon the Reveille begins…_

A Humanoid figure was pulled out of the viscous liquid inside the tube, steel parts adorned the joints and forearms, its legs looked as if light armor covered them. As two robotic arms finished pulling the figure out of the liquid by the shoulders, another pair was busy cleaning the liquid, an ingenious creation that blocked any component that might've cause degrading to the figure in the tube. The arms retracted as the last of the liquid was washed away.

The figure's upper chest was stripped of its armor, and then it opened to reveal several synthetic equivalents to organs, capable of emulating the body functions so anyone close by wouldn't notice the differences the figure presented to a human body.

Yet, looking at the insides of the chest, a part usually essential in living beings was missing.

The heart.

Another robotic arm lowered, carrying a bright crimson crystal sphere of some sorts. The crystal glowed even in the relative darkness of the facilities, a testament of its power. The robotic arms holding the crystal deposited it in a bowl-like receptacle inside the chest of the figure, a few anchors keeping it from moving as several ports attached to the crystal before it began feeding them power.

Another arm carried a blinking green crystal, this one, looked as if it was made from the feathers of some ethereal bird, but the other colors dancing across it surface made it difficult to know those tiny details. This crystal lowered itself behind the head of the figure, the back its head opening before another receptacle accepted the crystal before sealing itself. This one allowed other systems to begin system diagnostics.

Other arms covered the figure's arms and legs in more machinery, armor began covering its torso and other devices were locked on its back.

A helmet, black as any other thing connected to the figure, was lowed into the figure's face. The helmet automatically assembled itself to cover the head completely. The figure's armor gained some crimson detailing, giving it a quite good intimidating factor.

Data was loaded into its processes. One primary directive to follow.

[000000:14:41]

_System preparations complete, FRAGARACH Protocol has been fulfilled._

_Enkidu Project Status: Preparations Complete, Directives loaded, weapon systems loaded and ready, armor has finished assembly._

_Main objective: Complete Annihilation of the Kijiro Group. _

_Primary Objective: Facilities and Research, Complete Anihilation_

_Secondary Objective: Head of departments and researchers, No Survivors._

_Tertiary Objective: Kijiro Family…_

…

…

_No Survivors. _

_**Six Ranger BetaHalo Presents:**_

_**Persona: Wanderer Soul**_

_**Chapter 1: John 11:44**_

Gekkoukan High School, the most popular school sponsored by the Kijiro Group, was bustling with life, as its surroundings, Tatsumi Port Island. Some of the Events that happened there over three years ago devolved into legends, like the moonlight suicides and the 'Revenge Request' website…

However, this time, the island itself would devolve into legend.

Students went into their lives, ignorant of the end that years ago a group of people wished… would finally come.

The students in next to the windows noticed it first, a high-pitched whine that hurt their ears, before the sound of choruses singing began. Then in the sky, a black figure descended.

Clawed hands at its sides, and a horned helmet that sent chills to those who looked at it, a single red-lit slit serving as a visor glowed with intensity.

On its back, crimson wings made of light emerged, giving it the appearance of an angel of death…

As they would realize soon.

Its hand raised, and a white halo appeared over its head, the sunny day that was before was overtaken by the sudden formation of dark grey clouds. Lightning coming from them was visible.

And the figure lowered its hand it muttered one phrase that still could be heard by anyone close by:

_**[System Change: Shinden* Ultimate]**_

And so it came.

The storm called by the being unleashed its fury on the island, targeting all. Lighting struck buildings and people as if they were bullets from a machine gun, anything on the streets was vaporized by the power of the lighting.

The School fared no better, the extensive electrical installations served their purpose, sending the electricity of the coming lightning strikes to everywhere in the facilities. In less than one minute, 90% of those in the school were dead, and the other 10% were barely hanging in there, as the severity of the burns caused them to go into shock, and without anyone else alive in the island, it was impossible to survive.

The figure still floated in the air, unperturbed, it kept feeding the storm until no building stood, focusing the most in the High school and the train station.

It observed, and in accordance to its tertiary objective, corrupted as it was delivered, it changed its weapon in order to ensure no survivors remained.

_**[System Change: Tenrai Unlimited]**_

Its left hand morphed into a cannon, where remaining energy from the previous lighting strikes gathered, and not only there, but in six other orbs floating in a circle around it.

It fired, and a stream of highly condensed plasma burned the already charred remains of the island. In the end, only dust and ashes remained.

But it would not stop there, the figure, before its attack, had hacked the systems of Gekkoukan High, locating the archives from the times it wasn't a high school, it ripped apart the locations of similar Shadow testing facilities.

Their locations marked, it left, as the sound of screaming at the sight of the island turned blazing inferno and glass, began.

Since no survivors remained, no one could tell how Tatsumi Port Island along with all of its inhabitants, was erased from existence.

No one, but the camera of a couple in the mainland's beach, who were quickly seized by the Kijiro Group, the recording, turned to their HQ for further analysis.

Whatever they could get before they died too.


End file.
